Horothrium Hegemony
The Horothrium Hegemony was an expansionist and aggressive government that dominated a region of space in the Unknown Regions near both the Chiss and Nymean Ascendancies. Horoth Prime was its capital and the Horothrium were the dominant species. After the Horothrium War, the Hegemony was defeated and disbanded with its territories either breaking away or being annexed into the Ascendancy. Government The Hegemony is governed by a single male leader, or the Lai. Every leader who takes the position adopts the title "Lai" as their first name. The position can be hereditary, but rarely passes through blood relations. Most often, the previous Lai will adopt another and pass it through the adopted son. A female is forbidden from taking this position. The Lai makes all decisions regarding the expansion and conquest of other planets. The Lai does not have any ability to change or alter the Horot, or the sacred law that governs the Hegemony in civil and social affairs. It is the Lai that is the leader of the military and is responsible for leading the Horothrium people. The Ethlar is the body that makes decisions regarding the Horot and control the social and civil matters of the Hegemony. There are always twenty-one members of the Ethlar and females are allowed to be part of the body. The Ethlar is the oldest form of government for the Horothrium, it existed before the species became spacefaring. When new conquests and expansion became a major issue, the position of Lai was created. The Ethlar and the Lai are rarely at odds with each other because the one of the requirements of being named the Lai is that they must memorize the Horot and pledge a blood oath to uphold it. Any failure to uphold the Horot results in death. History The first official formation of the Hegemony as it is today was in 384 BBY. In this year, scouts had discovered three inhabitable planets and the decision was made to colonize them. In order to maintain the laws and order found on Horoth Prime, the Horothrium created the Hegemony that had power to extend its domination and rules to other planets. The first planets in the Hegemony were Horoth Raex, Horoth Tampi, and Jexov. Due to poor hyperdrive technology, the Hegemony was unable to expand beyond the original four planets for nearly a hundred years. During this time, their hyperdrive technology was unreliable and ships were often lost in transient. Not only was hyperspace travel dangerous, but it was slow. It took six weeks to travel from Horoth Prime to Jexov if all went well. The year 292 BBY was an important year for the Horothrium because they developed their first practical and semi-modern hyperdrive. This greatly increased the safety of hyperspace travel and decreased the travel time from Horoth Prime to Jexov to less than two days. With two years, they discovered and colonized Eras Ao, Horoci, Zekov, and Ylocus. Ever since that time, the Hegemony has been constantly expanding. In 43 BBY, the Hegemony engaged in the only war that they ever lost. Scouts found the planet of Zaweo Vei and the Vei species. Despite the Vei having only five planets and less than a tenth of the population of the Hegemony, they were extremely hardy fighters and utilized weapons and tactics that the Horothrium had never encountered. Battle after battle was lost until the Vei attacked Horoth Prime. The Horothrium fleet there was defeated and the planet was invaded in the Sacking of Horoth. For the first time in their history, the Horothrium were faced with a foe that they could not beat. Instead of foolishly fighting to the bitter end, the Horothrium offered the Vei an unique deal. The Vei would be able to join the Horothrium Hegemony as equals and not be enslaved or made a lower class than the Horothrium themselves. The Vei warlord Nvorm decided this was acceptable and agreed. In 10 ABY, the Horothrium Hegemony encountered a Chiss scouting party and was utterly defeated in a brief confrontation. The Hegemony quickly sent a battle fleet to the system and drove off the Chiss patrol that defeated their scout ships. The Chiss responded in a characteristic retaliatory strike and deployed a massive fleet to the system. Seeing that the Chiss were more powerful than any other they met, the Horothrium left the system without fight and ceased further exploration or expansion in the region. In 21 ABY, the Horothrium scouts encountered the Nulvarl Empire. At the time, the Horothrium were concentrating their efforts on keeping the Vagaari at bay and decided not to fight the aggressive empire. After a few brief skirmishes and encounters, the Horothrium left the area. For the next twenty-five years, the Horothrium fought the Vagaari off and on in a series of mini-wars. Twenty years later in 41 ABY, the Horothrium were alarmed to note the rising power of the Nymean Ascendancy. Scouts kept tabs on the expansion of the Ascendancy and noted the advanced technology that was being deployed. The Horothrium leaders could do nothing to start a war against such a large government while the Vagaari were at their borders threatening to enslave their planets. The Horothrium rejoiced when they heard of the Vagaari War when the Chiss and Nymeans nearly eliminated the Vagaari and drove them from that region of space and into hiding. That meant that the Hegemony was now able to consolidate their holdings and prepare for expansion against the Nymeans. Still, they were alarmed at the presence of advanced Nymean Star Destroyers that were being deployed by their targets. To counter these ships, they developed massive battlecruisers that relied on weaker but overwhelming firepower. They spent a long time preparing for this war and waited for the right time to strike. After they had built up their forces to what they believed to be sufficient levels, the Ethlar decided that it was time to launch their invasion. Faced with increasing expansion and advancing technology by their enemies, the Hegemony knew they would have to strike quickly or risk the Nymeans becoming too powerful to challenge. The Nymeans too, were eager for war in part because they did not know the true size and power of their enemies and believed their technological superiority would grant them an easy victory. In 55 ABY, a series of border skirmishes gave both sides the needed excuse to begin a war. Within the first three months, it became clear that the Nymeans were far more powerful than expected and the Horothrium began to brace themselves for a long war. They had hoped to quickly defeat the Nymean border planets and force a peace to their benefit that would give them significant portions of the Nymean Expansion Region. In the war of attrition, the Horothrium were able to eventually overwhelm the Nymeans through sheer numbers. They were on the edge of breaking through the layered Nymean defenses and penetrating into the Nymean Core Region when they were attacked by the Tareqi Dominion and a combination of several rebelling races within their borders. Horoth Prime was reduced to molten rubble by orbital bombardment and their leadership killed. In the resulting chaos, the Nymeans stepped in and conquered or annexed most of the Hegemony's territory. The final Hegemony resistance fell on 7/12/57 bringing an end to the government. Category: Horothrium Hegemony